Read of the Month (February 2020)

I know it is customary for me to post a Read of the Month at the start of the month but other events and happenings relegated it to half time.

My Read of the Month this month is an amalgam of my trip to Africa and to Poland in 2012.



As you may have gathered my trip to Southern Africa was more than a holiday; it was

• a challenge;
• an adventure
• an experience

My trip to Poland in 2012 was also more than a holiday: it was

Main Square in Zamosc

• an exploration 
• an investigation (of my heritage)
• a quest (I hoped this would be the first of many such trips but researching for my book precluded further expeditions).

Both trips were in different ways thought provoking.

Though both places are now wonderful. Until quite recently (depending how old you are) both have experienced turbulent times.

My Read of the Month illustrates this vividly.

It is

A Path of Hope

an

Autobiography 

of 

Lech Walesa

.

Unfortunately the translation is not very fluid; so occasionally the the account is stilted.

Nevertheless the sterility and hardship  of life in Poland under the Russians (Communism) permeates every chapter.

Also indisputably obvious is the amazing courage of Lech Walesa and his supporters.  

Ordinary people who defied the system.

Quite possibly without them Communism and the Berlin Wall may not have fallen.

This is an autobiography well worth reading.